Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Lars Foster-Jorgensen in honor of his fiancee, Becca Hine’s, birthday! Becca makes weekly trips across the pass from Seattle to dedicate her time and care for the chimpanzees and is currently in training as a volunteer caregiver. She is even choosing to spend her birthday here caring for the chimpanzees! (While this may sound like all fun and games, though it is in part, it’s also a lot of cleaning and very hard work).
Lars shared the following message for Becca:
“Happy Birthday to Level 3 volunteer, Becca Hines! Her dedication to primate care and conservation is inspiring. and we wish her a happy day with the CSNW Seven!”
Lars, thanks so much for including the chimpanzees in Becca’s special day! And Becca, from all of the primates here at CSNW, we hope you have an amazingly happy day! Thank you so much for all you do for us and we’re so happy to have you as part of the team. May all your wishes come true.
That was very nice of Becca!
I have a question, how do the chimps act toward a new volunteer? I know that it is natural for wild chimps to see an unfamiliar chimp as an intruder, so I’m not sure if that transfers to how they see humans while in captivity.
Do they immediately hit it off with some people, or stay wary of others for a certain time before warming up?
Hi Angela, great question! We have three levels of volunteers and only at Level III, as a volunteer caregiver, are people allowed to have interactions with the chimpanzees. An extensive amount of time and training goes into this, part of which naturally includes building relationships with the chimps. The chimpanzees are used to seeing many volunteers, but they can respond to new people with a variety behaviors ranging from seeming disinterest to territorial displays, which are a normal, healthy part of chimp behavior.
Some of the chimpanzees prefer the company of their chimpanzee friends to humans, where others are more human-oriented (often this is influenced by their individual histories). And just like us they do have their individual preferences and hit it off with different people more than others, or take a while to warm up, for whatever reasons. It’s always their choice to engage with us or not and they dictate their relationships with us.
Happy Birthday Becca! I hope you have a great day! Thank you Lars for including the chimps!
Thanks to becca for her dedication and to lars for his support
I could drive a couple times a month to volunteer. I only live 2 hours away. Thanks Becca!